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Because Milwaukee was playing baseball long before 1953.

Sunday, April 17, 2016

"Play Ball! Milwaukee's Love Affair With Baseball"

Milwaukee's love affair with baseball continues to draw interest. Milwaukee historian and writer John Gurda filed this report with Wisconsin Life, produced by Wisconsin Public Radio and Wisconsin Public Television:

Play Ball! Milwaukee's Love Affair With Baseball

by JOHN GURDAAUDIO | April 8, 2016

Ah, baseball! The crack of the bat, the roar of the crowd, the cries of the peanut vendors. Those have been fixtures of summertime in Milwaukee for almost as long as there’s been a Milwaukee. When the Brewers take the field for their home opener on April 4, they’ll renew one of the city’s oldest traditions.

It was in 1859 that the first game was played on a local diamond. Baseball was a different sport in those early days. Pitchers threw underhand, players fielded without gloves, and the bats were so heavy they were sometimes called “wagon tongues.” Everyone wore woolen uniforms, even on the hottest days, and they could really work up a sweat; it wasn’t unusual for scores to reach the triple digits.

As the game evolved and the fan base grew, what had begun as a gentleman’s hobby became a professional sport. The minor-league Milwaukee Grays made their debut in 1878, and the city fielded any number of pro squads in the decades that followed.

The most durable minor-league team was the old Milwaukee Brewers. From 1902 to 1952, they played their home games at Borchert Field, a North Side ballpark shoehorned into a single city block at Eighth and Burleigh. Interstate 43 now runs through its ghost. The park’s wooden benches held roughly 10,000 fans, who risked getting splinters in their backsides. The foul poles were a scant 266 feet from home plate, and long balls sometimes sailed through living room windows across the street.

It may have been primitive by modern standards, but fans loved "Borchert's Orchard." For fifty years, they took the streetcar to watch players with nicknames like Hot Potato, Specs, Cuckoo, Dinty, Tink, Ski, and Wee Willie take on the Toledo Mud Hens, the St. Paul Apostles, and the Louisville Colonels. The team rewarded its fans with eight American Association pennants during its long run.

It was the minor-league Brewers' success, both on the field and at the gate, that gave Milwaukee the confidence to build County Stadium in 1953. We built it, and they came. The Boston Braves moved in as soon as the stadium was ready, and Milwaukee was finally in the bigs. The team set a National League attendance record in its very first season and won the World Series just four years later, vanquishing the mighty New York Yankees.

After the intoxicating success of the Braves, Milwaukee, and Wisconsin, have lived through the heartbreak of their defection to Atlanta, the soporific slumps of the early Brewers, the glory years of the Yount-Molitor era, and the ups and downs of the Miller Park period.

Win or lose, Milwaukee remained a good baseball town. The Brewers’ attendance passed one million for the first time in 1973, when the team finished 23 games out of first place. Last year, at the start of a painful rebuilding period, 2.5 million showed up.

And why not? Every spring, hope returns like the tulips in our gardens. Will this season be the one? Will the Brewers still be contenders in September? There’s only one way to find out: Play ball!

Outstanding. I love anything that helps spread the word about our Brews.

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Chance Michaels is a native New Yorker who spent many of his formative years in Milwaukee and developed a lifelong interest in the region's sporting history. In addition to his work with BorchertField.com, he runs the Green Bay Packers Uniform Database, an ongoing research project devoted to the design history of that other Wisconsin pro team. When not immersing himself in old game programs, wire service photos and newspaper archives, he produces theatre Off-Off-Broadway, and was formerly a contributor to The Onion. He lives in New York City with his family.

Paul Tenpenny was born, raised in and is proud to be a citizen of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Paul lives within walking distance of Miller Park and its predecessor, Milwaukee County Stadium. A lifelong collector of various antiques and collectibles, he specializes in Milwaukee and Wisconsin related Sports and Historic Memorabilia. Paul has been writing articles on Milwaukee Sports collectibles since 2007 and is in his 3rd year of writing his popular Vintage Brew series. An active member of SABR and its local Ken Keltner chapter, his memorabilia has been displayed at both the Milwaukee Historical Society, the Milwaukee Public Library and the Wisconsin State Historical Museum.

Dennis Pajot is a life long resident of Milwaukee, who enjoys as a hobby researching Milwaukee baseball. He is an active member of SABR, both the local Ken Keltner chapter and the national group. His Milwaukee baseball publications include "The Rise of Milwaukee Baseball: The Cream City From Midwestern Outpost to the Major Leagues, 1859-1901" (McFarland & Company, 2009) (Winner - 2010 Sporting News-SABR Baseball Research Award) and "The Greatest Baseball Game Ever Played Anywhere" (Wisconsin Magazine of History, Spring 2009) detailing an 1899 baseball game in Milwaukee between City of Milwaukee officials and State of Wisconsin officials to help the sufferers of a tornado in New Richmond, Wisconsin.

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